“I’mnotseducing you. That’s the point.” I nod at the mattress. “Shirt off. Lie down on your stomach.”
He blinks at me. “Pardon?”
“Shirtoff. Lie down.” I undo my cloak and hold my hands out to the fire, trying to warm them, glad for the smallness of the room. It’s heating fast and so when Otto opens his mouth to question me again, I know it isn’t because of the chill.
“Please,” I cut him off. I turn, the fire at my back, and cross to stand in his space. The bond is so much more intense the closer we are, the emotions from him mingling with the weight of his presence and the warmth of his body.
“Fritzi, I—”
“FRITZI!”
We both jump at the shriek that comes from the flames. I whirl around to see my cousin’s face wreathed in orange and yellow, sculpted of gilded fire.
“Liesel!” I snap, hand to my chest. “The Three save me,you have to stop doing that.” But my shock twists sharply into worry. “Wait—what’s wrong? Why are you contacting us again?”
Liesel smiles, so my worry ebbs, but it only makes room for that initial shocked annoyance to rage back up.
“We’re fine!” she chirps. “Hilde just made me contact Brigitta for her, and they weresogross with all theirlooooovetalk—I really don’t think Abnoba meant for this spell to be used forthat.”
A voice behind Liesel goes, “I told you not to listen.”
Liesel makes a face over her shoulder. “I don’t think the magic will stay up if I’m not here!” she says, but her overly innocent tone tells me sheknows exactly that the magic will stay up, she’s just nosey. “Anyway,” she refocuses on me, “Brigitta told us you were fine, but I wanted to check in on you because we haven’t heard anything about Dieter, and Philomena and Rochus are still trying to track him, but they aren’t gettinganything, and I’m soboredbecause Hilde made me go back to school lessons yesterday, and I—”
“Liesel.” I kneel down by the fire. Her flame-sculpted face twists to me, wide eyes showing a brush of fear before she forces a cheeky smile.
My annoyance disintegrates.
“I miss you too,” I tell her.
Otto crouches next to me. “We’ll be back soon, I promise.”
Liesel looks between us. “And…you’re okay?” she asks, her voice softer, smaller than it was before.
I smile. True and gentle. “We are. We’re at an inn now. We get to sleep on a real bed tonight.”
Her face screws up. “I didnotlike that part of traveling. I likereal bedsall the time.”
Otto chuckles. “Don’t let her know I told you, but I think Brigitta does too. Our tough kapitän likes sleeping on the hard ground as much as you do.”
Liesel laughs, the sound high and bright, and it makes me beam at Otto.
“Oh, Ihaveto tell her!” Liesel laughs again. “She wasjusttelling Hilde how wasteful it is to not be camping out.”
Hilde’s voice comes through, “Do not mock my delicate love.”
Through my smile, I lean closer to the flames. “Go to bed now, Liesel. It’s late. We can talk in a day or two.”
She hums, seeming lighter, less concerned, than her manic energy when she’d first appeared. “Okay. You too.” A pause. “I love you, Fritzi.”
“I love you too.”
Another pause. Her face in the flames starts to fade.
“IloveyoutooOtto.”
Then she’s gone in a wisp of smoke.
“She put out my fire,” I pout to the embers.
